Education emperors hamper regulatory bids

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">MUMBAI: As the courts express concern about the huge jump in fees at professional colleges, educationists point out that attempts to frame regulations have been hampered by the fact that many politicians run educational institutions themselves. <br /><br />“It took so long to come up with guidelines because 50 per cent of the cabinet has a stake in the lucrative education pie,’’ confessed an education department official.<br /><br />In fact, one of the first challenges to the state’s attempts to regulate admissions this year came from Congressman D.Y. Patil, who runs a medical college in Mumbai and Pune under the umbrella of the D.Y. Patil Deemed University. <br /><br />“The government’s diktat to conduct centralised admissions is a breach on the autonomy of the Deemed University,’’ will prove more effective in ensuring quality than government regulations. <br /><br />“Those who seek professional education should pay for it,’’ said V. Shankar, the honorary secretary of the South Indian Education Society, which commissioned a cost auditor to come up with a fee structure for its engineering course. The auditor fixed the fee at Rs 66,000 per year. <br /><br />Realising that this amount is too steep for most students, the trust has proposed a fee of Rs 49,000. It plans to bridge the gap by charging students who fill the 15 per cent management seats a premium of Rs 1.48 lakh. <br /><br />(<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">The government subsidised IITs charge Rs 40,000-Rs 45,000 per year.</span>)</div> </div>